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Design fundamentals, in order

These articles already exist and most people arrive at one of them from a search, read it, and leave. Read in this order instead and they build on each other: the elements you work with, the principles that arrange them, and last the Gestalt rules that explain why any of it works. Nothing to sign up for.

Start with the elements

Part 1 The elements

The things you actually put on a page. Start here, because the principles in Part 2 are all about arranging these.

  1. The 7 Elements of Design and Art [Infographics Included] Start of part 1 7 min read
  2. The 60-30-10 Rule in UI Design: How to Split Your Colors 7 min read
  3. Color Harmony in Design: What the Color Wheel Says, and What People Prefer 8 min read
  4. Color Theory in Design 16 min read
  5. Kerning vs Tracking vs Leading: The Three Kinds of Space in Type 8 min read
  6. Typeface vs Font: What Is the Difference, and Does It Still Matter? 7 min read
  7. Line in Design: Types & Examples [Infographics Included] 5 min read
  8. Point in design 4 min read
  9. Texture In Design: Types & Importance [Infographics Included] 4 min read

Part 2 The principles

How those elements are arranged. This is the longest part, and the one most design briefs are really asking about.

  1. The 11 Principles of Design and Art [Infographics Included] Start of part 2 16 min read
  2. Alignment Principle in Design: Importance & Examples [Infographics] 8 min read
  3. Balance Principle of Design [Infographics Included] 6 min read
  4. Contrast Principle of Design 6 min read
  5. Emphasis Principle of Design 5 min read
  6. F-Pattern vs Z-Pattern: How People Scan Pages, and Which to Design For 8 min read
  7. The Golden Ratio in Design: What It Is, and Where It Actually Helps 7 min read
  8. Hierarchy Principle of Design 6 min read
  9. Movement Principle of Design 6 min read
  10. Pattern in Design 6 min read
  11. Proportion Principle of Design 7 min read
  12. Repetition Principle of Design 5 min read
  13. Rhythm Principle of Design 6 min read
  14. Scale in Design 6 min read
  15. Types of Grids in Design: Manuscript, Column, Modular, Hierarchical and Baseline 8 min read
  16. Unity Principle of Design [Infographics Included] 4 min read
  17. Variety Principle of Design 4 min read
  18. Visual Weight in Design: What Makes One Thing Feel Heavier Than Another 7 min read
  19. White space in Design 5 min read

Part 3 Gestalt, or how people group what they see

Why the eye reads some things as belonging together. Read this last: it explains why the earlier parts work.

  1. 11 Gestalt Principles of Design [Infographics Included] Start of part 3 7 min read
  2. Gestalt Principle: Closure (how our brains fill in the missing visual gaps & how to use Closure in designs) 4 min read
  3. Gestalt Principle: Common Fate (Using Coordinated Motion in Design to Associate Relations) 4 min read
  4. Gestalt Principle: Common Region (Grouping by a shared boundary) 7 min read
  5. Gestalt Principle: Continuation (Visual Perception of Continuous Flows & Paths) 2 min read
  6. Gestalt Principle: Figure-ground Relationship (Differentiating Elements by Perception of Subject & Background) 4 min read
  7. Law of Prägnanz: Why the Eye Takes the Simplest Reading 6 min read
  8. Gestalt Principle: Proximity (Associating relatedness through placement) 3 min read
  9. Gestalt Principle: Similarity (Associating relatedness from shape, size, color & orientation) 2 min read
  10. Gestalt Principle: Symmetry (How we bring balance to Compositions) 6 min read
  11. Uniform Connectedness: Why a Line Can Group Things Better Than Space 7 min read

When you finish

This path covers how a design looks. It does not cover how you find out what to build, who it is for, or whether it worked. That is the other half of the job, and there is a separate free course for it.

See the UX Foundation Course